As CTO, Cole will be responsible for the company’s strategy and vision to help ensure its customers are successful in the early detection and derailment of cyberattacks. With more than 30 years of experience in government and industry across a variety of roles, Cole has a proven track record in successfully building program-driven business development teams designed to achieve rapid, multimillion-dollar annual revenue growth. His experience in leading large global consulting teams will also be applied to assist Attivo Networks customers in enhancing their security defense and operations.

“The addition of Tony Cole to the Attivo Networks executive team will serve as a great benefit to the deception market and our customers,” said Tushar Kothari, CEO of Attivo Networks. “Tony is a widely respected cybersecurity strategist and evangelist, and we feel that his experience will serve as an excellent fit to help us educate the market on the evolving threat landscape, and the role of threat deception technology for early detection and an active threat defense.”

Prior to joining Attivo Networks, Cole was Global Government CTO at FireEye. He was a key driver of FireEye’s growth over the past five years through an IPO and into a successful publicly traded company. Prior to joining FireEye, Cole was the Vice President of Global Government Services and the Network Threat Response platform at McAfee. Before McAfee, Cole held several senior leadership positions with Symantec and Recourse Technologies (acquired by Symantec), and he served in the U.S. Army, where he helped build their security infrastructure around the globe and at the Pentagon. Cole also served on the advisory board for Secure Elements prior to their sale to Fortinet. Today he serves on the Board of Directors for (ISC)², the parent non-profit organization for the CISSP certification. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Silent Circle. In 2017, he was appointed by the NASA Administrator to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), where he is a member-at-large.

“Threat deception is one of the fastest-growing segments of the cybersecurity market, and because of Attivo Networks’ innovative approach to in-network threat detection, it is uniquely positioned to aid organizations of all sizes across industries with strengthening their overall security defense,” said Cole. “The company’s focus on covering all vectors of possible compromise by utilizing deception enables quick detection and slows the attacker while gathering critical intelligence. I am looking forward to helping extend Attivo Networks’ lead in the deception market and empower organizations to embrace more successful active defense measures to protect their data.”